Trudy Simpson, Staff Reporter
Jean Saurel Beaujour, head of the Haiti-based Association of National Solidarity. - IAN ALLEN/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
JEAN SAUREL Beaujour has lived with HIV for 14 years. For him, HIV has now become a friend. It has given the 44-year-old Haitian-born social activist the strength to spread important messages to Haitians, especially those living with HIV. Messages such as protect yourself, love yourself, have courage, you have rights and should fight for them.
"Yes, we have the virus but we are still citizens," he says.
These are messages he has been preaching since 1999, when he started the Association for National Solidarity (French acronym-ASON) in Haiti, which accounts for most of the Caribbean's AIDS cases.
SPIRALLING HIV INFECTION
The organisation was born in response to spiralling HIV infection rates and high levels of discrimination in Haiti, a country of over eight million people, and which is plagued by a host of problems including poverty, political unrest and inadequate health care.
Through ASON, Beaujour and other champions have been raising AIDS awareness. They have been fighting for the human rights of the estimated 400,000 HIV-infected persons living in Haiti, where voodoo priests out-number properly-trained doctors (8,500 to 1,800), where health clinics are located very far from communities, and where many Haitians are either unaware of HIV or still clinging to the belief that AIDS is caused by someone wishing them ill.
According to Beaujour, ASON has grown in number - from 16 persons to 2000. It has also touched hearts, raised HIV awareness and has changed some people's behaviour by using testimonies from HIV positive persons - a very powerful tool in a poor country. It has also been working with other agencies and the Haitian media to reduce the spread of HIV, highlight and prevent discrimination and provide support for infected persons.
SOME TRIUMPHS
Now, despite the unrest in some sections of Haiti, things are getting better for persons living with HIV. The triumphs include:
- More persons are disclosing their status and giving testimonies publicly to encourage less discrimination.
- A prevalence rate that has become stable (It dropped from six to five per cent and remains there)
- 3,000 Haitians are accessing HIV-fighting medication (although this is a drop in the bucket compared to the 150,000 who need medication) and
- More voodoo priests have been convinced to refer infected persons to health centres
"Now we have trained several leaders because we have broken the cycle of fear of discrimination in society and in telling your family. Before, we were slaves. Now we are free," says Beaujour, who was in Jamaica for a week of meetings with local HIV positive persons, courtesy of the PANOS Institute Caribbean.
